Sharing Web Resources

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families

http://www.zerotothree.org/

The organizations focus is on Infant and Toddler development and their families.   It focuses and shares information about many topics that families can experience with their infant and toddler children. It offers support and guidance relating to the children’s behavior and development, maltreatment, and care and education (school readiness). It breaks each topic down into age groups by; 0 to 12 months, 13 to 24 months, 25 to 36 months, to show the various stages of child development and how each stage develops over time. The topics under the behavior and development section focuses on brain development, challenging behavior, early childhood mental health, early development, health and nutrition, mental health screening and assessment, play, sleep, promoting social emotional development, temperament and behavior. The topics under maltreatment are child abuse and neglect, safe babies court teams, and impact of trauma. The topics in care and education are child care, family, friend and neighbor care, and school readiness interactive, and the topics under public policy are infant-toddler policy issues, building early childhood systems, federal policy, state and community policy, action center, policy toolkit, and webinars and conference calls. I noticed many of the articles help support families that are in the military, as well as other families with different dynamics.

I recently signed up for E-newsletters from the sight that is called From Baby to Big Kid and it asks you to share your child’s date of birth; to help support parents and other early childhood professionals work with the child and family to the best of their abilities. By putting in the child’s birth date they will send newsletters that are specific for the child’s age and development.

I like how the site offers so much information for parents and professionals alike to learn and gain many resources to strengthen families and their children.  As much as I’m a teacher in an Early Head Start Program, there is a wonderful article that explains the importance of what Early Head Start is all about and the many opportunities the program offers to the families and children. It shares with parents and other early childhood professionals, how Early Head Start came to be, how the states are building upon the program, the opportunities and challenges they are facing, and any recommendations. It’s a start for others to learn and know about, since it’s a program that is beneficial for families and children to be able to succeed; to know that they were successful in all their adventures and journey to achieve that success.

Reference:

http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/Building_on_the_Promise.pdf?docID=5281

Getting Ready – Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

This week, I took the time to explore the Global Alliance of NAEYC website, of early childhood professionals from around the world. I took the time to email, one contact from each country. One professional, I’m unable to connect with because their email is no longer in use. I have send emails to other professionals around the world and I waiting for them to respond back to my email. I have spoken with my supervisor and manager of early childhood and asked them if they knew any professionals within the early childhood education field that I could correspond with during my class for my Master’s Program. I explained to my supervisor and manager the goals of the class and how often I’m encouraged to communicate with the professionals.  I showed them my assignment and they were going to contact their professional from around the world. They will let me know if I will be able to contact them for my class, if I’m unable to make contact with any of the professionals I have at least tried to make contact with; I will be using the alternate assignment for Part 1 of the blog assignments.

This week, I took the time to observe the early childhood related websites within the United States. I looked at the majority of websites and I make a decision to study the Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. I felt this website offers many resources for professionals, teachers, and families. They have simple and easy tabs for quick search, depending on the subject and topic a person is interested in finding more information on to help support the children and families. It shares resources for child development and the topic concerns and challenges families and teachers experience with child. They have resources to help support and overcome the struggles of aggressive behavior/challenging behavior, biting, routines, transitions, and separation anxiety. The site offers many articles and other websites for professionals, teachers, and families to explore and learn more about the topics listed above. I will be going back to the website to sign up for their newsletters and more information to help my guide of studying issues and trends within the early childhood education field. If any of my colleagues have any questions or want to discuss a certain topic, I’m willing to share my thoughts, suggestions, and new techniques or resources to help with any issues and trends they deal with on a regular basis.

My Supports

Emotional support from family and friends – including boss

Practical support by creating to-do lists

Physical support, I will ask for help and receiving it is another story, I don’t always receive help.

I can currently identify a challenge that I’m facing at the moment, well, have been facing since April.  As a teacher I have shared my concerns with my boss/supervisor about a child’s aggressive behavior within the classroom.  I would share what the child was doing towards the other children and at times towards the teachers.  I wrote up a contacts sheet that describes the child’s challenging behavior and the techniques used by the teachers to help support the child.  The boss/supervisor looks it over and signs it and makes a copy for our Mental Health Consultant.  Then I speak with the parents about having the Mental Health Consultant do an observation on the child.  The parents sign a form and the MHC sets up a time to conduct the observation.  After the observation, recommends suggestions for the teachers to try with the child to support this challenging time.  As the teachers continue to work with this child, they continue to share their concerns with the supervisor, but nothing changes.  Then the supervisor decides to set up a support conference with the parents to brainstorm a support system for the child.  The parents only are encouraged to set up an appointment with Early Intervention for an assessment.  Still there are no consequences regarding the child’s actions within the classroom and the teachers continue to support the child the best way they can.  The child ends up being sick during the time of his assessment so now it’s back to square one.

I would want support emotionally to know that everything I have been doing to help this child, is truly helping one small step at a time.  I want my feelings to be considered and respected, not pushed to the side and feel offended been my supervisor and administrators. 

I would want support practically, to know what new techniques, and current ones are working for the child and with his teachers to help him overcome the challenges within his life at the moment.  I want to be shown and given new ways to support the child and the family with this challenge happening, supposedly just at school.  I want to be offered to take new training's that support challenging behaviors and how to support them in the classroom environment. 

The factors that support me are speaking with my team members at my frustration level regarding the handling from the supervisor and administrators with the concerns from the teachers to get this child the help he needs to control his aggressive behavior.  By sharing my feelings with my team members it helps myself release the frustration and tense from the given situation and challenge within the classroom.  Hearing their shared feelings and concerns, tell me that they understand the feelings and emotions of the given situation.  They feel the same way regarding the lack of support from our supervisor and administrators with the struggles and challenges us teachers are dealing with.  When sharing and getting to brainstorm techniques and new ways to approach the challenge with new eyes to help support this challenge the best way we can, with the challenges of change happening within the child’s family environment.  As a professional, I look at different resources to help find new techniques and ways to help support the child to decrease the level of his aggressive behavior in the classroom towards the other children.  I try my best to read articles, about the topic at hand, regarding the challenges the child is facing.  I do my best finding articles about aggressive behaviors, self-regulation, and finding new ways to show him how to relax and get control over his body.  Sometimes with all the research and articles, the teaching team, works together to try new ways of supporting the child regarding the results from the research on various topics to support this child with his aggressive behavior.  I even speak with some friends and family members regarding the challenges I face at work and the lack of support to get this child the help he needs to be successful.  It frustrates me that the lack of support in a professional manner do want to support the efforts of a teacher and their team to help the child overcome the struggles and challenge within his life at the moment.  It’s just nice to know that I have others, outside of the situation to take the time to listen, with an open heart the concerns teachers have about a child going through a rough time and needs all the help and support he can get.

Having supports within your life helps ease the roller-coaster of emotions going on within that person regarding the situation at hand.  It makes the situation and challenge helpful when others are there offering support, guidance, and respect to make every technique work to the best of their abilities for the child.  It makes a day with the child different every day, always guessing what sort of mood the child will be in to pull out the techniques that will work regarding the emotional stability of the child.  Without these supports I would be going to a professional counselor or therapist to express my feelings and emotions of the situation and challenge I’m facing currently in my life.  I don’t think I could continue to with helping the child if I wasn't receiving any help or guidance professionally to encourage this child to discover ways on his own to control and relax his body, self-regulation, and understand his own emotions within side of him.  I feel that everyone deserves to have a support system, big or small, regarding life and the struggles any one person faces at work, with a family, school, and other situations.  A support system will help bring everyone together and be successful.

My Connections to Play

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." - Plato

"Play keeps us vital and alive.  It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable.  Without it, life just doesn't taste good." - Lucia Capocchione

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw

Pictures of Toys that Were Essential to My Play

                             

Being an only child growing up, I was encouraged to play by myself or with the neighborhood kids when I was younger.  My parents supported my play by encouraging me to use my imagination, exploring with my toys, and creating pictures to express myself.  My grandparents supported my interest in puzzles and making sand castle or houses for my match box cars.  I acted out events or situations I remember and saw while exploring and discovery my world.  I enjoyed being outdoors and spending time going for walks, riding my bike, planting, and cooking.  I got to help with the cooking and rolling hamburg into meatballs for spaghetti night.  I enjoyed playing with my barbie dolls, match box cars, and my toy phone to call my friends and family on.  I loved pulling the phone around with me so that I could call my favorite people any time I want.  I loved playing in the sand and building houses for my match box cars to park at their home.  The cars would drive to the shop to get food or clothing and to school.  I also pretended to be a teacher and line up all my stuffed animals and teach them what I was being taught.

In some ways play is very different compared to when I was younger till now.  Many children today, don't play outdoors at all.  Many children are hooked on play with electronics and not longer play like I did as a child.  I don't see many children today riding their bikes or playing a game of tag outside with friends, or even playing an outdoor game like bad-mitten anymore.   Play today is so wrapped around academic skills and mastering these various academic skills to move forward in life.  Its good and all, but children need to play with others and by themselves.  I want children to find the love of nature again and be outdoors, exploring the beauty around them.  I loved watching the flowers grow and bloom, digging for worms, and watching the clouds above me; naming them as they floated by.  I want to see children do this again and not so attached to electronics.  I find that children need to grow up faster then ever before and that the meaning of play is no longer an importance for a child's needs of growth and development (Almon, 2002).  

The role of play is important on so many levels.  I still enjoy play; whether its a video game, with the toddlers in my classroom, or my cousins and nieces and nephews.  I like to read stories, though when I was younger, I enjoyed making up stories.  Today, I still do, but this time I get to write them out and post them for others to view.  I think, sometimes as an adult, we forget what its like to be a kid and playing with our toys and stuffed animals.  When I read stories I always find myself, thinking I was a character in the story and what the character would do in the story - I was doing instead of the character.  Still do that today when I am reading.  My development is still growing and developing, even if I'm in my early 30's.  The understanding and knowledge of development and play starts in infancy and goes through adulthood (Berger, 2012).  

References:

Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education. Gateways, 43. Retrieved from http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAPlayAlmon.pdf

 Berger, K.S. (2012).  The Developing Person through Childhood.  (6^th Ed.).  New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships/partnerships with other people are so important within a person's life.  Relationships help shape a person's understanding of the world around them and how they fit within their world.  Relationships with others bring the best out of a person and they can look past the strengthens and weaknesses to see the unique being someone really is.  I have amazing relationships with multiple people in my life.  I have great relationships with family, friends, co-teachers, and other people within my community that I am apart of.

I have a wonderful relationship/partnership with my co-teacher Annie, who I have known for over 3 years.  We work together in the toddler classroom and support each other within the classroom and in our personal lives.  I helped support her when she decided to send her son to a preschool program before entering Kindergarten.  Watching the struggles that she went to at making her decision at sending him to the preschool program; its the best choice she made when he graduated from the program and the joy she felt at how hard he has come through his overall development.  I learn very valuable strategies and skills from her at how well she interacts with the children, their families, and classroom management.  Gaining these skills within myself from watching and observing my co-teacher through this process, I have been rewarded in learning skills that I was unable to achieve at the early stages of my career.    Our relationship stays strong because we continue to support each other and share feedback with one another.  We support each others strengthens and weaknesses and offer advice when needed; its sort of like a marriage.

I have another wonderful relationship/partnership with my best friend Christine.  I met her when I was a student in the Engineering Program and she was in my English class.  She supported me and was a tutor to me for a particular class that I was having trouble in and she never stopped until I understood how to solve the problem.  No matter how much she helped and supported me for this class, it just was not meant to be and I flunked out of the program.  I have not regrets because now I have been in the field of early childhood education for about 13 years.  She supported my decision of changing schools and majors and continues to support me throughout our relationship.  I have supported her on many similar experiences within her life as she has for mine.  I find it very humbling to know that I have someone to go to and talk about what I am passionate about and she offers advice to guide me in the right path for decision making.

I have a great relationship with my mother.  She is my first teacher and will continue to be my teacher and offer advice and guidance when I need it.  She was been there to support my decision of partaking in the engineering program and not being successful to changing career paths to education and being as successful as I have been; despite some struggles and challenges I have faced within the field itself.  My mom continues to support my decisions on life my sharing her thoughts regarding it to help me see the pros and cons of the decision at hand.  I do the same for her and want the best for her now that she is getting older.  I want her to have the best care regarding her health and that meant the decision of changing doctors that cared more about their patients than just going through the motions of the job.  I support her to be the best person she can be and she does the same for me.

Some challenges that might arise in developing and maintaining relationships/partnerships with another person is lying to one another and not being able to connect to one another when there are no similar interests among the parties.  Or one person tries and makes the effort to make the relationship/partnership work while the other wants nothing to do with it.  Though at the same time I find it hard to answer this topic subject because I am dealing with this dilemma at the moment in my own personal life.

I feel that I am able to see the person for whom they are and respect their strengths and weaknesses that make the person who they are in this world.  We each bring something to the table (relationship/partnership) because of our experiences growing up and the way we were raised within our own families.  I find the relationship I have with my co-teacher is more like a partnership compared to the other relationships but I find that each relationship with another person can be considered a partnership.  When both parties are willing to put the effort in, be respectful, and offer advice that is positive and negative can really strengthen the relationship to the core.

I feel by understanding and knowing how much effort and willingness I but into my relationships with others in my life helps me in wanting to have strong relationships with the students and families that I will meet and work with for years to come.  By stepping out of your shell and trying to find one thing in common with other person can be a breaking point and help support a brand new relationship with a child and/or their families.  By reflecting on my past and history regarding relationships I find help and support me on connecting and bonding with the students and families really well.  I am able to know what turns others away and knowing too always be open, honest, and understanding as well as respectful to the other person will help keep the relationship strong.

When I Think of Child Development

"Diversity creates dimension in the world."  - anonymous

"Children need models more then they need critics."  - Joseph Joubert

"You can learn many things from children.  How much patience you have, for instance."  - Franklin P. Jones

Testing for Intelligence?

As a professional in the system already, I look at the whole child and all their developmental areas to start with.  I feel by looking at the whole child, a person will have a better sense and knowledge about the child and how to support them with the progression of their development.  By understanding the whole child its helpful to support a child's development; I believe the multiple intelligence helps support this idea because it focuses on all areas of development.  I feel the best way to assess a child is through observations and their daily interactions with peers, teachers, and their families.

In Japan they strive to have quality, high standards, and efficiency for all children in all grades. The have a system known as MEXT that supports the above statement for their children in schools of all ages.  Japanese children have some much knowledge in all areas of development, they sadly lack the thinking and learning by themselves or to apply their knowledge.  These children are focused on groups and lack individual motivation.  The Japanese school system is changing its focus from group motivation to individual motivation to support and encourage the children to motivate their individual self.

This quote stood out to me:  "I strongly believe that the lack of discipline from parents at home is the cause of our children's issues, not the performance of our teachers."

It amazes me that people are finally understanding that a child's first teacher is their parents or families, before their teachers.  I am surprised to know that in the Japanese culture that they would suggest this statement because of research in the Japanese culture families are very in-tune with their children's education and development.



References:

http://mabryonline.org/mglc/japan/archives/2006/10/japans_assessment_of_japanese.html